As the Cleveland Cavaliers season continues to befuddle basketball fans around town, we pause to remind everyone that since the beginning of last season, supporters had two whipping boys when things didn’t go well.
David Blatt was one of them, and he was fired half way through the 2015-16 schedule, with a record of 30-11 on the season.
So, now to falls on Kevin Love to be the problem whenever anything on the Cavs doesn’t go well.
Our belief is that Love is a very good NBA player, one that the coaching staff and his teammates still haven’t figured out how to use to the best of his abilities.
We will concede that the former UCLA standout misses too many wide open looks from beyond the three point line, but he is not as bad of a defender as is purported, that is as long as he isn’t asked to guard centers.
Our comment when fans tell us Love needs to go, or the Cavs should trade him after the season is over is too say that the power forward isn’t being used right.
After Tyronn Lue took over as coach, he made the comment that he wanted Love to get touches at the elbow, where he had been successful at Minnesota, but there hasn’t been much evidence of that.
Sure, it has been used from time to time, but not on a consistent basis.
It appears from watching games and listening to post game press conferences that LeBron James understands that Love can contribute and is important to the team, however, the third member of the “Big Three” doesn’t seem to feel the same way.
Think about it, how many times do we ever see Kyrie Irving find Love, or really James for that matter, on the court?
Many writers have written about a “disconnect” between James and Irving, but the latter seems to be playing his own game a lot.
Look, Irving is supremely talented, and we are not suggesting that the Cavaliers should trade him. He is simply too good of an offensive force, although we can all agree he needs to work harder on the defensive end of the floor.
However, if anyone needs to make adjustments on the court, it is Irving not Kevin Love, and it is Irving that needs to start getting Love involved, and not just standing on the perimeter waiting for open threes.
We have before that when Lue said upon getting hired that he wanted to play Love with the second unit to make him the focal point, that the role should go to Irving, who wants to play that way anyhow, and is very effective at doing it.
After all, James and Love appear to be able to play together, and it doesn’t seem that LeBron and Kyrie have high chemistry on the court together.
We see Matthew Dellavedova finding James on cuts to the hoop all the time, do you ever see the same with Irving?
If the Cavaliers are going to get back to The Finals, they need an improved Kyrie Irving and a more efficient Kevin Love.
That can happen if the two can learn to play off each other on the offensive end, and Irving stops playing the one on five style he is becoming more and more enamored with.
The only problem with Kevin Love is that the Cavaliers are putting him in the best position so he can help them the best.
Maybe he can’t fit in because of the talents of James and Irving, but wouldn’t it be nice if the latter at least attempted to make it work better?
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 